Update: 2/21/2014, Version 1.0.1After only one day in the App Store Bug Heroes 2 has had a price change. While it was Foursaken Media's original intention to make the game free, they've since decided that it was better suited as a paid release. The difference in price has not effected the score or Editor's Choice designation, as I'd initially believed that the game would be paid anyway. I actually had trouble believing it was free at first. That said, this game is great regardless of how much it costs. It was beyond worth it when free, and it's still a no-brainer at $0.99.

Oh Bug Heroes. It was such a a deceptively great game, wasn’t it? It didn’t look like much but it was packed with upgradable characters, made great use of action/defense style gameplay mechanics, and was a lot of fun to boot. Now Bug Heroes 2 has come along and pretty much topped the original in every conceivable way.

Much of Bug Heroes 2 will be familiar to fans. There are still food stashes to protect and hordes of enemy bugs to fend off, and they’ll continue to hunt for food in order to both heal their character and keep the stash well-stocked. Another large roster of insect (and non-insect) fighters returns, each with their own particular strengths and weaknesses. And, of course, they’ll be progressing in waves MOBA-style; with character upgrades largely contained to a given round rather than carrying over. There are some rather significant (and fantastic) differences however, with new heroes, enemies, co-op and versus multiplayer, and permanent unlockable perks being the most obvious changes.

Bug Heroes 2 is decidedly prettier than the first game yet still retains Foursaken Media’s unique visual style. It’s not as immediately noticeable from the default camera view but now players can tap a button to zoom in and use an over-the-shoulder camera that provides a better picture of what’s off in the distance - and it makes the little graphical details much more noticeable. They'll also be bringing two heroes into battle simultaneously now, and can switch between them at will. It’s even possible to issue basic movement orders to the secondary hero, which means players can now formulate simple strategies on-the-fly such as placing a melee fighter in a bottleneck and supporting them with a ranged character. The roster has also been expanded with a total of 25 unique heroes, including six Legendary characters that are extremely powerful but take up both slots in a match.

I’ve noticed that the graphics engine will start to chug significantly when there are a lot (and I mean a lot) of enemies on the screen, although those instances have been few and far between. The look sensitivity also takes a little getting used to, but I imagine it's meant to prevent players from losing precious milliseconds while turning. Heroes can also end up getting stuck on certain terrain objects, which doesn’t really bother me as much as those objects being hard to see because they’re so low (i.e. coins and such). Plus it makes no sense as to why the heroes can’t just walk or fly over them in the first place.

Honestly though, I’ve yet to be disappointed by any of the games Foursaken Media has released and Bug Heroes 2 is certainly no exception. If anything I’m actually surprised by just how much they’ve managed to improve and refine their original ideas.

Review disclosure: note that the product reviewed on this page may have been provided to us by the developer for the purposes of this review. Note that if the developer provides the product or not, this does not impact the review or score.